


two birds on a wire

by NobodysHome



Category: The Dark Crystal (1982), The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (TV)
Genre: Another How the Meeting and Everything Went Down Fic, Experimentation, Hurt/Comfort, Imprisonment, Other, Torture, the Mystics - Freeform, the Skeksis - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-26 15:14:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20744282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NobodysHome/pseuds/NobodysHome
Summary: "We tried to convince our fellow Skeksis that we must be made whole. That is when they turned on us. Branded me Heretic and forced us into hiding."Convincing the other Skeksis really doesn't go over well.





	two birds on a wire

**Author's Note:**

> Rewatched the show-- and that puppet show scene again-- and now I'm back with another version of how things maybe went down.  
Cause why not.  
Bit darker than my other one for sure. 
> 
> Im gonna preface this by saying I'm still not sure on bits of lore and if I've even written close to characterization but oh well.
> 
> summary is mainly just the quote from the show and title is from the song Two Birds by Regina Spektor

They had discussed to some degree how they would tell them, having met between the Valley and the Palace after receiving their summons from Thra.

Unsurprisingly, things had been tense at first. 

Either of them unsure how to proceed, only knowing what they had been shown, and what they eventually had to do. However, with time-- and no lack of missteps-- they reached what semblance of harmony they could. 

urGoh just barely figured out where to speak up so the Conqueror would listen and the Skeksis only somewhat learned how to hold his tongue when he needed to. But it was enough. And finally, after a few days of waiting and many failed attempts to reconnect with Thra, they decided that moving forward with what they had would have to do. 

With the utmost confidence, the Conqueror assured him it would be wiser to head for the Valley _last_. That the Skeksis would be harder to convince than the urRu and so they should be spoken to first.

urGoh had not the heart to tell him how set both were in their ways. That working together, so soon after some scars were still so fresh-- the very idea of embracing one another-- would only offend, let alone frighten. 

So, he merely followed behind the Conqueror, keeping quiet on the matter as he focused on the path ahead and not what it might bring them. 

The Skeksis continued to ramble all the while as they trekked through the groves. He poured through troves of information, skimmed over topics, skipped erratically to entirely new ones as they fit his fancy, and urGoh merely listened; glad for once that someone was there to fill the silence. 

It kept him from thinking too much. 

The idea that they could reconsider this decision, turn away and head for the sands together and never confront the rest of the Skeksis' brethren; that alternate path was highly appealing. And he found himself slowing his pace, watching the Skeksis trove on ahead, gesturing wildly as he continued to speak. 

"--and of all the times-- that's _exactly_ when skekLach decided it would be a great idea to--" The Conqueror paused, glancing around himself. "urGoh? Where did you--" The Skeksis turned in a circle, still somehow missing him. "urG--" Finally he found him, hands thrown up in surprise. "There you are! I know you lot are slow, but I'm sure you can pick up the pace. The Castle isn't that far off now--_ Let's go_!" 

The Skeksis made his way towards him as he spoke-- quickly, as always-- reaching out for him, presumably to tug him along more than help, and urGoh waved him off. 

"I... am fine." He insisted."Just… unsure." 

"About?" 

urGoh looked to the suns burning bright above them. "Whether... they will want to hear--" 

"'_What we have to say'_?" The Conqueror finished for him and urGoh nodded, somewhat used to the Skeksis impatience by now. 

"Well--" The Skeksis straightened his armor, dusted off the red stained and dented plates and nearly preened. "--they'll listen to _me_." 

urGoh glanced to the Conqueror's weapon, an ornate and harrowing blade. Merely another thing the Skeksis was unwilling to part with just yet. "And… if they don't?" 

"Then I-- I suppose we'll… Well, we'll just--" The Skeksis shook his head. "No. They _will_ listen!"

The Conqueror straightened up even further, hand resting on the hilt of his blade. There was an ineffable confidence about him, an assurance that the others would heed him and truly hear. And he was quite sure the Conqueror was not a Skeksis who was accustomed to being ignored or pushed aside by any means. Not with how loud and how… _much_ the Skeksis could be.

If anyone could get them to listen, it would be him. 

Yet, urGoh's doubts still did not leave him, even as the Skeksis turned to continue their journey. 

\--

They finally neared the Castle just as the suns began their descent, the winding path cast in stones of fire as evening creeped upon them. UrGoh peered up towards the gelfling guards posted outside the entrance, their armor the same awful, reflected red, and the urge to turn back twisted in him. 

The confused chatter of the gelfling guards carried to them as they ascended, nonsense at first and then clearer as the Castle loomed larger and larger before them, until the shadow of the monolith engulfed him and the Conqueror in its entirety. And there was no turning back any longer as they stood in the face of it.

One gelfling guard-- seemingly the bravest of the bunch-- stepped forward, knocking their feet together and bowing low. The Conqueror waved them off dismissively and looked down his snout at them, the expression he wore colder than anything urGoh had seen him wear yet. 

"Inform the Emperor that his Conqueror has returned once more, and that he requires an audience with his excellency _immediately_." The Conqueror paused, glancing at him. "Ah! Yes, yes-- And do tell him I've brought a guest who needs to speak with him as well. Now go-- quickly! _Now_!" 

The gelfling quickly turned to take off down the hall, heeding the command with only a rushed _'yes, my lord'._ urGoh didn't miss the way the hardened tilt to the Conqueror's expression turned more neutral once they were out of sight. 

As they waited for them to return, urGoh glanced towards the other gelfling guards posted nearby. Mostly to one in particular who had gone terribly ashen and another who trembled in their armor where they stared wide-eyed at him. He couldn't help but wonder what stories the Skeksis told their charges about the urRu. 

In his wanderings he had only met gelfling briefly and in passing-- most had been quite wary of him, nearly terrified in some instances. And he was sure at least part of it had to do with some form of learned superstition. 

The Conqueror leaned in. "Ah, yes, ahem… So, we _may_ have spun a few tales about how your lot would curse them to nothing and beguile them so you could weave their hair into robes-- but just small stories really! Nothing _too_ tall of course." 

He silently eyed the Skeksis and the Conqueror merely shrugged, giving a sharp tug at the sleeve of urGoh's robes whilst pointedly glancing at the gelfling who only shivered harder. 

Gently brushing off the Skeksis' antics with a deep sigh, he settled in to wait for the gelfling guard to return-- in favor of not sending the ones he's already scared aplenty into an early grave. The Conqueror's continued grumbles about him being no fun went entirely ignored in favor of peering as far down the shaded bowels of the halls as urGoh could. 

He couldn't see much, but he could recall the layout vaguely. The last time he had seen the interiors of this place, he had been leaving. And he never thought he would return so soon. 

The clank of armor finally echoed from within, the gelfling rushing out, clearly winded as they stopped before the Conqueror, bowing deeply once more. 

"The Emperor is expecting you, my lord." 

"Wonderful!" The Conqueror threw his arms out, turning to him and waving him forward. "Come now, Wanderer! We mustn't keep the Emperor waiting now. He can be quite the impatient one-- but you didn't hear that from me!" 

The Skeksis started in, hurrying past the guard who was still panting and warily eyeing urGoh like the others. He went to follow, but found himself oddly frozen, staring into the dismally lit hall, and he once more wondered if it was too late to rescind his decision. 

It was a few more steps before the Conqueror stopped and glanced back over his shoulder, once-- twice-- as if to confirm urGoh was indeed all but rooted to the stone beneath him-- before he huffed and hurriedly backtracked. 

"Come on, come on-- I know you're a slow one but try and keep up!" 

And, before he could protest, the Skeksis snagged his arm and pulled him into the fanged and grinning maw of the Castle. 


End file.
